Thursday, 26 January 2017

Payet Latest: Star Looks Set to Stay Until the Summer

The media has been
alive with all manner of 'expert' opinions about the Dimitri Payet situation
with the majority of observers highly critical of the how the player (and his
agent) have dealt with the situation while conceding that West Ham would be
better off to get rid of the toxic star.

Ultimately,
the ball is now firmly in the club's court as to what they decide to
do with Payet - cut and run or hold out for a better deal. It's also still
possible that he might return and play until the end of the season just as
happened when he staged a similar campaign at St Etienne seeking a high
profile move to PSG in January 2011.

So far, the Payet
problem has had a galvanising effect at West Ham as the team have played
visibly better without him and with back to back wins have essentially ended
any relegation fears and solidified Slaven Bilic's place as manager for the
foreseeable future.

In the past some fans
have been critical of David Sullivan's bullish approach to transfer business
accusing him of being overfocused upon getting a good financial bargain rather
than the best players. With over 30 strikers having been signed for the club
over the past 5 years, only two have really made the grade (Sakho and Carroll)
with most of the rest readily forgotten (Jelavic, Emenike, McCarthy, Maiga,
Carew, Piquionne etc etc).

However, our fans poll
has revealed some fascinating findings about what you think the club should do
with Payet!

① By far and away the most
popular option (40%) is to hold out for the full £35million asking price and
refuse to sell him if the fee isn't met!

② Next most popular is to hold
tight until the last day of the transfer window and offload him for the
highest bid (26%).

③ Almost one in five (17%) of
fans reckon we should take the sadistic option of letting him rot in the
reserves until the Summer!

④ 13% reckon we should take
Marseille's current cash offer and put it down to experience.

(5) Just 7% believe we
should forgive and forget if he apologises and bring him back into the first
team squad.

(6) While we believe
that our poll has been infiltrated by non-fans with one vote each for 'Offer
him more cash' (Probably Peter Odemwingie's vote we reckon) and 'offer the
distressed star counselling' (Payet's agent, no doubt!).

Of note, taken
together these results imply that two thirds of fans believe Payet should
(be made to) stay at the club until the Summer! Only a fool would doubt the wisdom of our fans so we reckon Dimitri is gonna have to stay a Londres for a while longer!